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Behavioural Explanation & Schizophrenia

Hello,

Have been given a work sheet to complete but am baffled.

The question is... Explain each of the following symptoms of Schizophrenia using
A) Classing Conditioning
B) Operant Conditioning
C) Social Learning Theory

The Symptoms are
A) Auditory Hallucinations
B) Delusions
C) Bizarre Behaviour
D) Catatonia

I never thought of Schizophrenia being a "learnt" behaviour so am struggling to get my head around this. I originally wrote down that Classical Conditioning with Auditory Hallucinations could be that if a young child spoke of his hallucinations with his parents he would get attention and then learn that when he hallucinates he is treated better ?

Thanks in advance :confused:

Reply 1

Maicccccmannnn

Original post by christy053

Classical conditioning would seek to correlate environmental stimuli with auditory hallucinations. More specifically, classical conditioning would suggest that whatever environmental context the auditory hallucinations had previously occurred in would have led to the individual associating the two together. As a result, whenever the individual was present in the concerned environmental context, the auditory hallucinations would be triggered. This environmental stimuli could be an object, a person or a place. In the academic article "Increased susceptibility to auditory conditioning in hallucinating schizophrenic patients: a preliminary investigation", Kot and Seper illustrated how laboratory experimentation had illustrated the ability to classically condition auditory hallucinations with lights. Kot and Seper comment "evidence suggests that hallucinating patients acquire and maintain sensory-conditioned hallucinations".

Operant conditioning would seek to correlate rewards and punishments with auditory hallucinations. More specifically, operant conditioning would suggest that whatever previous rewards or punishments had previously preceded or followed auditory hallucinations would directly influence there future occurrence. For example, Fonagy and Slade (1982) illustrated how the association of punishment with auditory hallucinations acted as an effective treatment. Results showed associating the punishment of an unpleasant noise following the occurrence of an auditory hallucination dramatically reduced the number of future auditory hallucination occurrences. Conversley, Scheff (1966) demonstrated how the associated benefit of auditory hallucinations with attention would dramatically increase there occurrence.

Social Learning Theory would seek to explain auditory hallucinations in terms of the socio-environmental context. More specifically, social learning theory would suggest auditory hallucinations are learnt and modified through social observations and social interactions. For example, in Beck (2009) the auditory hallucinations which participants reported reflected social occurrences participants had experienced. In one participant's hallucinations, the individual heard a little girl crying and of voices calling him a “creep” and a “faggot”. This reflected the social occurrences the individual experienced, whereby the individual witnessed both of these terms being used in the course of physical and sexual abuse.

You now need to apply the same reasoning to Delusions, Bizarre Behaviours and Catatonia, providing supporting examples and contextualise them.

I hope this helps.

If you need any further help, don't hesitate to PM me.